July 4, 2002 - 22:48 AMT
AZERBAIJANI HOPES FOR GUAM STATE-MEMBERS SUPPORT IN STRUGGLE AGAINST NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Since the very beginning of the activity of the GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) alliance, its members "have striven for the coordination of the efforts regarding the struggle against separatists regimes". As reported by "De Facto" agency with reference to Azeri media, Azeri foreign minister Vilayat Guliyev has stated that. He noted, because of the lack of other ways of cooperation "in the struggle against separatist structures, we support one another in political sphere, protect the territorial integrity of one another". For example, he noted, "when in Georgia the elections were conducted by the separatist regime, the Azeri party expressed its attitude immediately and, in its turn, when "the parliamentarian elections" were conducted in Nagorno-Karabakh territory by the separatist regime, the Georgian and Moldavian parties expressed their negative attitude". "I hope we will be witnesses of the same attitude towards the forthcoming "presidential elections" in Nagorno-Karabakh", Guliyev stated. At the same time, he expressed opinion that the cooperation is not enough in this direction and "more concrete and maybe more rigid ways of cooperation are needed". Guliyev noted, in the course of the planned for July 19-20 Yalta summit, the GUAM plans to pass a political statement regarding the struggle against terror.